I love this picture.
I’ve got a book about elephants here, and they really do cry and shed tears when distressed.
They look after each other, ‘love’ each other, and mourn a herd death too.
I loathe the evil poachers who keep killing them for the ivory.
They are indeed wonderful creatures.
Amazing animals. Would love to see one in the wild. 
I am a huge fan of elephants…I have little ornaments of them and a large wall tapestry made by an Indian woman I used to work with years ago. They are wonderful animals, very soulful. 
Beautiful creatures, I love elephants. Such intelligent animals - I love how they all look out for each other in the herd, and how they work together to bring up and protect the young. It is desperately sad that this noble creature appears to be evolving whereby young females are born tuskless, as a direct result of the relentless ivory poaching.
This could be a good thing, Bathsheba if it stops the poaching?
Yes, I agree with you, Sheba. 
Not sure about that, Tiffany. Does it not rob them of their defences - like declawing cats?
Well that’s one way of looking at it. But on the other hand, elephants’ tusks have a variety of purposes - digging, lifting things, gathering food, stripping bark from trees to eat, and defence. They also protect the trunk, another valuable tool for drinking, breathing etc.* I find it incredibly sad that they’ve had to evolve to protect themselves from poachers, but may now be at a disadvantage in other areas because of this.
I have just learned, though, that although both male and female African elephants have tusks, only male Asian elephants, and only a certain percentage of males today, have them. So maybe the male Asian elephants are also evolving to being tuskless.
*From worldwildlife.org
They are lovely, gentle giants!
These elephants have great empathy, they never forget a kindness or a nasty either.
I never knew they could cry,Mups, I read they don’t have tear ducts, whether that’s true I have no idea,
I’m the same about poachers. Nasty greedy people .
Elephants are magnificent, very intelligent creatures.
I once watched a video of a herd of elephants who all helped a baby elephant be saved after it fell in some water. The togetherness was heartwarming and brought a lump to my throat. Truly, truly magnificent and beautiful creatures who deserve to be here more than the ones who are responsible for the decline in the elephants. I wish something more could be done to stop the ivory trade. I mean, who even wants to buy ivory these days knowing how it is gotten and where it comes from.
There seems to be different opinions on this, and I am not qualified to know who may be right.
One example for instance is from when a calf was rejected by his mother:
" One worker quoted in an article noted, “The calf was very upset and he was crying for five hours before he could be consoled.” Humans did try to calm him down but their touch is not the same as another elephant’s."
Another said:
" In a nutshell, available information supports the view that other animals do cry and weep and that they can be closely associated with various emotions, including, perhaps most likely, sadness and grief that are associated with loss.
Then on the other hand:
" So, while scientists are not 100-percent certain, solid scientific research supports the view that elephants and other nonhuman animals weep as part of an emotional response."
While this may look superficially like emotional “ crying” it occurs simply because elephants have lost the normal mammalian structures that drain excess moisture away from their eyes ,without the true lacrimal structure, elephants are unable to produce emotional tears.
I was in Thailand at an elephant hospital where they were loved and cared for .I watched them swim and play in the lake and rolled around as they were scrubbed by their carers .
Moved onto a place where people were carried on their backs as many as 8 and when the beautiful elephant walked past me I could feel a low vibration rumble a sort of sound she / he was making and I looked into its eyes , long beautiful eyelashes , she was only about 3ft from me I could actually feel her gentle vibration as she passed . I told her I was sorry for her and promised i would never climb onto an elephants back . I can still see and feel this amazing creatures vibration
I think suggesting that elephants losing their tusks through evolution is nonsense.
Evolution gradually takes place over thousands or hundreds of thousands of years, and would certainly not be witnessed in our lifetimes.
It appears this is not always the case Foxy. Have a look at this article Animals are evolving faster than you think – here's the living proof.
Ivory poaching is recorded as far back as the 14th century BC, so the elephants have had more than 3000 years for an evolutionary response to occur.
Yes, like I said earlier, there seem to be mixed opinions on this.
I dont doubt for a minute though, that animals can feel grief.
Mups, I saw a programme some time ago of an elephant who had just lost her calf. I truly believe there was a painful look in her eyes as she tried to bring her calf back to life. Even the other elephants surrounded the little one and appeared to be grieving with her.
I have been privileged to spend bits of time with elephants in Asia and Africa, both in sanctuaries and observing them in the wild.
They are amazing creatures. I have heard baby elephants cry out loud when they get separated from their mothers, a long mournful wailing sound.
The elephants who have got used to humans show their mischievous, playful side too when they are taken to the water for a wash and brush up - they wait until the handler washing them is not looking, then suddenly spray a trunk full of water over the handler’s head.
I remember watching from a lakeside hide in Kenya when an older elephant had spent ages casting around the ground with her trunk to find a good spot, then using her tusks to dig into the sandy ground to uncover a patch of salt. Just as she was about to take up some of the salt, a male buffalo approached her head on and challenged for the patch of salt.
Two younger male elephants immediately ran to her aid, flanking the matriarch on either side - they looked ready to take on the challenge of the buffalo.
I was thinking that surely these 3 huge elephants could see off one aggressive buffalo and waited with baited breath, fearful that a fight may break out and there would be injuries.
However, the matriarch seemed to weigh up the situation and decide that discretion was the better part of valour. Some things are just not worth fighting over and I guess she decided that too, so she calmly turned and walked away, while the other two elephants covered her back, then they too turned and walked away, leaving the buffalo in possession of the salt lick.
Here’s a sweet story from a cameraman who spent time with elephants in the wild:
“Elephant society is a very female-based hierarchy, and the loyalty that a herd shows to a matriarch is intensely strong. They will follow her wherever she goes: perhaps that is a manifestation of love of a different sort.
Emotion requires communication, and the vocalisations of elephants are incredibly sophisticated.
They operate on some sound frequencies we can hear — trumpeting and grumbling — and others that we can’t. Much of their long-distance communication occurs through vibrations that are inaudible to us.
Low-frequency (or infrasonic) sounds are transmitted constantly, a deep rumble somewhere between 15-30 Hertz. The normal human range of hearing is between 20Hz and 20,000Hz.
These low frequencies can be sensed through the elephants’ trunks and even their feet, like vibrations on the skin of a drum.
They can talk to other elephants 50 miles away through the ground, communicating in ways that we are only just beginning to understand. It is possible that each elephant can recognise up to 100 other individuals by their infrasonic ‘voice’.
When we’re working with elephants, we can never let down our guard.
I have been with populations that were utterly relaxed around humans; they just looked at us as being another kind of primate.
Once, in the Okavango Delta in Botswana, on foot, I was part of a three-man camera team when we were surrounded by a herd of elephants.
That felt pretty scary — we were miles from our camp and could do nothing but crouch low beside a termite mound and keep murmuring, making small movements to show the animals that we were still alive.
These were elephants very much in their natural state; they had never been hunted, and they were simply curious. In turn, three mothers brought their babies to show us to them. It appeared to be for their education — as if the mums were saying: ‘Come here, kids, and look at this!’
The babies approached us to within about five or six metres, wiggling their trunks and looking in all directions, and then they would suddenly lock on to us.
We could hear these rumblings between mother and calf, as if they were discussing us. This happened three times within about ten minutes, before the matriarch led the herd away. That really was a magical experience.”
This is the news article it was taken from
